According to one process of providing users with information relative to programs recorded in a video cassette by a VTR (Video Tape Recorder), a recording area dedicated for recorded program information is established on a leading portion of a magnetic tape in the video cassette, and, when necessary, the recording area for recorded program information is played back to obtain recorded program information, which is displayed as a recorded program guide on a monitor screen. The user can see the recorded program information displayed on the monitor screen to recognize contents of programs recorded in the video cassette presently loaded in the VTR, the order in which the programs are recorded, and recording start/end positions (times) on the tape.
With the above method of providing the recorded program guide, however, since recorded program information is recorded on magnetic tapes in video cassettes, the user is required to repeatedly load video cassettes into and eject video cassettes from the VTR until the user finds the particular video cassette in which a desired program that the user wants to see is recorded. Therefore, the user needs to perform a tedious and time-consuming task.
Furthermore, because the recording area for recorded program information is positioned on the leading portion of a video cassette tape, if the video cassette tape has been wound partway, then the user needs a time to rewind the video cassette up to its leading portion in order to see the recorded program information. This also puts the user under stress.
There has been known a process of recording a program by establishing a tape number with which to identify a tape on which the program is recorded and a program number with which to identify the program, storing information of the tape number and the program number in a tape library memory in a VTR in association with given program guide data, and superimposing the information of the tape number and the program number and address information indicative of a tape-like recording position upon a vertical blanking period of the video signal of the recorded program.
In order for the VTR to establish a tape number in recording a program in a tape cassette, the VTR plays back the loaded tape cassette for several seconds. If there is a program which has already been recorded in the tape cassette, the VTR detects a tape number that has been recorded together with the video signal of the recorded program, establishes the same tape number as the detected tape number, and thereafter starts to record the program. If there is no program which has already been recorded in the tape cassette even after the tape cassette has been played back for several seconds, then the VTR regards the tape cassette as a virgin tape cassette, and establishes a new tape number.
To establish a program number, the VTR searches the tape library memory using the tape number detected as described above, determines a program number to be established, and establishes the program number.
With identification information being thus allotted and managed to identify recorded programs, if the tape number of a certain recorded program can be identified when the loaded video cassette is played back for a short period of time, then it is possible to read and display program guide information that has been stored in the tape library memory according to the identified tape number. Therefore, necessary program guide information can be obtained through a playback for a short period of time. In addition, a label marked with a number corresponding to a tape number established by the VTR may be applied to the casing of the tape cassette. When information regarding programs recorded in the tape cassette is displayed on the basis of data stored in the tape library memory, the user can easily recognize the position where a desired program is recorded on the cassette tape.
When the VTR is about to establish a tape number for a certain tape cassette in which programs have already been recorded, if the tape cassette is loaded into the VTR with a blank (unrecorded) tape area positioned at the playback head, then since no recorded programs are detected by a playback started from the blank tape area for several seconds, the VTR decides that the tape cassette is a virgin tape cassette. In this case, the VTR establishes a new tape number, records the established tape number in the video signal of a program, and stores information of the recorded program together with information of the established tape number in the tape library memory. Consequently, though a plurality of programs are recorded on the same video tape, different tape numbers are recorded in their video signals, and these programs are managed as being recorded on different tapes in the tape library data. As a result, the programs actually recorded on the video tape do not match the management data presented as program guide information.